So that new Haunted album got some mileage, did it not?

By far, that post made for the most successful day of our short run here at Meat, Mead, Metal.  So thanks to everyone who stopped by. I also said last Thursday that on March 18, the day of the infamous Haunted review, that I’d be running my favorite non-metal albums of 2011. I sort of didn’t. Basically, I have some eye strain right now (way, WAY too much exposure to our VDU monitor … like, WAY too much), and for someone like me who thinks every ailment is taking me directly to the graveyard, I didn’t want to aggravate it further. So look for that list March 25, this Friday.

Mondays typically will be the day we discuss the mead and meat portions of the site, and so let’s go there together. Well, OK, so I didn’t exactly drink mead. It’s … we needed a third M. But there was beer to be had, and usually I try to stop somewhere locally that sells loose six-packs. In case you don’t know what I mean, some establishments let you mix and match different types of beers. Like, this local hot dog shop D’s has a gigantic cooler filled with all kinds of beers, and you can just load up on whatever you want. It gets pricey, but it at least allows you to try some different things.

This week, I bought two different types of Duck-Rabbit, a beer made by a small brewery in North Carolina that I’m actually kind of shocked I can find around here. I went with their barley wine and their Baltic ale, and since both have a fairly high ABV, I left it at that. I started with the barley wine, which was very bitter and very hoppy. I am not a big hops fan. I don’t hate it, but I tend to stay away with beers that have a more pronounced hops taste. That said, this beer grew on me. I went from being slightly disgusted by the taste to, once I got to the end of the bottle, kind of wishing I had more. Also, since its ABV is 11 percent, I felt pretty awesome once I finished it. Cartoon arms. It was then onto the Baltic ale, which is darker and has a bit of a cocoa bend. It’s pretty smooth, tastes good, and when I secretly splashed a little vanilla vodka into it, the taste got even better. Both beers I’ll try again, with the slight edge going to the Baltic. If you want to check out the Duck-Rabbit site (which looks like it was designed in 1996), go here: http://www.duckrabbitbrewery.com/

Saturday, we got to the meat. Uh. Anyway, we usually do something fun with the crock pot on Saturday, but we didn’t have time to do that, and my wife and I were more in the mood for some grilling. We got home a little later than usual, so by the time I lit the grill (and the fire pit about 10 feet away), our dark yard made it look like we were holding some kind of ritual. Maybe we were. My part of the preparation was really simple: I was grilling the burgers. By the way, don’t put too much spice or enhancements into your ground meat. It’s not necessary. Usually, just some salt and pepper will do the trick, but I put a little BBQ sauce into mine. Not sure what my wife put into hers, but it was all basic.  My wife made a recipe she found on the Betty Crocker web site that was a sort of cheesy potato salsa kind of deal. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to how she whipped this thing together because I had fires to stoke, but you can see the final product. She warned me the salsa she was using was pretty spicy (I tend to not be a big fan of hot, spicy foods), but it really wasn’t too hot. Everything worked together, and you could taste the cheesiness and the salsa at the same time, as no flavor got canceled out. I can’t think of more to say about it because I had a few drinks at the time of consumption. Go make it yourself and find out.

To check out the cheesy salsa potato thing, go here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-cheesy-salsa-potatoes/b279ec6e-8686-4cce-b730-d9fb0ddd007d?WT.mc_id=taf_recipe_BC

As for the burgers, they were grilled perfectly. That’s not bragging. It usually takes me a few grilling efforts each year to kind of get it right, but this is only the second time we’ve grilled in 2011, and it worked fine. My wife put some sort of seasoning on top of her burger before I grilled it, and apparently that didn’t work out so well. She complained it made everything taste like pickles. Lesson learned. Less is more.

Not too exciting, but altogether it was a pretty successful Saturday night. Beverages were had, I tried not to worry too much about my visual strife (as much as I can, being a life-long hypochondriac and chronic worrier), and I even got in a few visits with new albums from Trap Them and Goes Cube (more on that one later). Not sure what next weekend will bring, but it’s supposed to be chilly, so maybe the grill will sit out and the crock pot will come back.

More to come this week.